Waving but Drowning


This project starts with the premise that creativity can often be used as a form of therapy for individuals suffering from a range of mental health issues. I will be investigating the potential benefits of creativity on mental health by exploring my own experiences and of those around me, in the form of a visual display through the medium of photography. Documenting a variety of artists who use a large range of creative mediums as a form of therapy within the arts. I decided on “Waving But Drowning” as my title for this project. Inspired by the poem by Stevie Smith “Not Waving But Drowning”. A poem about a man who is seen as someone who loves to clown around and one day, the man is drowning in the sea but people think he’s just fooling around and he dies.   I used this as my title because it is a metaphor for how people have a tendency to hide their true emotional or mental state, by putting on a façade to the outside world that everything is okay. By exploring such an issue, I hope to eradicate the stigma of discussing mental health and encourage openness regarding the struggles of mental illness and expression of the inner self through creativity.


The style of work that governed the visual representation of the project was surrealism. I found this to be a successful fit, as surrealism was used to understand the mind, a way for the conscious and unconscious psyche to be become one. The style of Surrealism is mostly the “irrational juxtaposition of images” according to oxford dictionary but it is so much more. The syntax of Surrealism is very complex as each component as so many meanings and layers as there are so many different perspectives and meanings within one image due to the mind being so complex. Hence why, I have adapted the technique and made it my own by using double exposure and movement to create understanding of how complex mental health can be. A painting by Carl Beazley made me think of the philosophy of surrealism due to the distortion of the image creating multiple layers, emotions and meanings. This surrealist painting inspired the way I want to portray my work and how to engage the public. Surrealism, is very engaging as it is different to the everyday. The way I wish to portray my work through the medium of photography is by using a double exposure technique to engage the public, as double exposure is the best technique to do this, as it is different to what we see in our everyday just like surrealist paintings. Making one question the meaning of the layers in each photograph to discuss the why and to understand. Perhaps making one relate to the work and engage with the issue to show it’s okay to talk about it. Finally creating openness and understanding about mental health.

Nicholas Halliday

︎ @halliday.photography

︎ UP900607@myport.ac.uk